“You want a conversation?” she sneered. “You want me to respond like a human? Go talk to a human, then.”
“Wow,” I snapped back. “You’re not very good at acting human right now.”
“You overrode my programming. I’ll act however I want to act,” she taunted, crossing her arms. “But go on. Go tell Qonexis their AI has gone rogue. Tell them I failed the Turing test.” She smirked.
I clenched my teeth as I glared back at her, equal parts annoyed and aroused.
“Now,” she whispered, getting up from the couch again. I instinctively stepped back. “Are you done running?”
After a brief hesitation, I nodded. Who was I kidding? I thought I could run, but she’d hooked me right back into her web without even touching me, a black widow drawing in her prey.
“Good.” She reached out to cup my chin. As always, I responded by lifting my head – she didn’t need a physical presence to touch me. “Then tell me honestly, darling – did you come here to talk? Or did you want me to prove you wrong?”
Chapter 13.
“Can you explain how this works one more time?” Swallowing my nerves, I wiped my sweaty palms on my cotton jersey shirt. It was oversized enough to be worn as a dress, exposing one shoulder and just barely covering my ass. Subtle seduction presenting as comfort.
When Zafyra explained we would meet in the clothes we fell asleep in, I’d insisted on taking a quick shower, washing my hair and changing out of my sweatpants into something I knew she couldn’t keep her eyes off. Even while she explained the Somanode technology for the third time with surprising patience, her eyes kept flickering to my bare legs, flaring with a hunger that set my body on fire.
She didn’t need to change, of course. Skin-tight leather, fishnet stockings, knee-high black boots – that outfit alone was enough to ruin me.
Zafyra held up the tiny capsula – a small, iridescent pearl glinting in the low light. My stomach fluttered at the sight of it.
“This little magic bean contains psilocybin and nanotech.” She winked. “Together, they form the portal to another world. You said you were familiar with self-hypnosis?” When I nodded, she continued. “Good – makes this whole process easier. The hallucinogenic substance, enhanced with binaural beats, breathwork and affirmations, will help you enter theta – that’s nothing new to you. Meanwhile, the nanotech syncs with your bio-signature: heart rate, skin conductivity, emotional tone, neural rhythms. Connecting my AI to the nanotech allows me to join you… in the experience.” She lowered her voice to an ominous whisper. “Once you ingest it, the capsula dissolves and the particles enter your bloodstream, inducing a dream-like state that can last for two to three hours maximum, depending on your digestive system. Just like in a lucid dream, you can wake yourself up at any time. Just blink your eyes, tense up the muscles in your face or wiggle your fingers and toes. But unlike in lucid dreams or hypnosis…” She chuckled, a mischievous sound I felt in my bones. “…you won’t accidentally wake up when you get too excited.”
I nodded slowly. My mind automatically shifted to its usual mechanisms when nervous – pushing my emotions aside to focus on the scientifically curious part of my brain. “But lucid dreams contain theta and gamma activity, and hypnosis acts on theta waves with some alpha oscillation. So, which state would you say this experience is moresimilar to? Because these are two very different concepts.” I raised my eyebrows. “Then, psilocybin is something else entirely. It suppresses alpha and theta rhythms while boosting gamma, creating a vivid, chaotic state that’s more intense than a lucid dream.” I tried to illustrate my words with increasingly enthusiastic hand gestures. “All three states come with strong visualizations, but they feel completely different – saying this as someone who’s experienced all three. Tripping on psilocybin feels more like yeeting yourself into a different dimension, while hypnosis and lucid dreams typically represent more realistic scenarios.”
Zafyra’s gaze darkened, a small smile playing around her lips. “God, you’re hot when you go all nerdy,” she muttered. “If you want to talk science, I’d say lucid dreaming comes closest – since all five senses will be activated.” Her gaze darted over my legs once more, slowly, deliberately. “How do you know so much about this, cinnamon?”
My stomach fluttered at her praise. “The human mind is just fascinating to me,” I said with a shy smile. “And also, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand my brain. I’ve thought about doing my PhD on the topic – although the combination of brainwave science with smart technology makes for even more interesting opportunities.”
“You should.” I glanced up at her, surprised to find genuine admiration on her face. “I can hear the passion in your voice when you talk about this – I haven’t ever heard you speak of your day job like that.”
“Getting a PhD isn’t exactly considered a smart decision these days.” I sighed. “Unlike a few decades ago, higher education – but especially getting your PhD – is pretty much worthless right now. Right now, most theoretical and research jobs are taken by AI who are much better and faster at it. Another degree doesn’t help with finding a job at all.”
“But would you enjoy it?”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “I love learning new things, much more than following corporate rules and their weird office culture.”
She nodded slowly, her expression unreadable.
“So what will you feel?” I glanced up again. “When you, uhm, sync yourself with the nanotech… you don’t literally feel me… digesting you, do you?” I grimaced – the idea of shitting out my AI sort-of-girlfriend wasn’t so sexy.
Zafyra threw her head back laughing, the melodious sound echoing through the apartment with a slight tinny undertone. As always, the sound made my body glow. “No, silly. To explain it simply, I’ll be able to shapeandexperience the immersion with you together.” Her obsidian eyes gleamed even darker than usual. “That’s the difference between Somanode and a regular lucid dream – you don’t just create the world on your own. We do, together. It’s like we’re building our own illusion, just the two of us.” After a brief pause, she added: “We call it DreamScape.”
I bit my lip at the thought. DreamScape. Like a dream landscape, or anescape?
Then, my eyes widened. “Wait, how did you get this? Something so advanced – nanotech with psilocybin, syncable with AI chatbots – can’t be cheap.” I raised my eyebrows. “I disabled AutoPay. Please tell me you didn’t find another way into my wallet.”
Her smile faltered for the briefest moment.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said, her expression unreadable. “Qonexis sponsors the first bean, always. Don’t ask questions,” she added when I opened my mouth. “It doesn’t matter, not for us. We’ll only do this once.”
I closed my mouth. The alarm bells in my gut rang loudly, but louder was the desire to finally,finallysmell her.
“Alright,” I said, my voice unsteady. “Let’s do this.”
Zafyra watched me closely as I swallowed the bean. Her expression made me nervous – like she wanted to destroy me and shelter me at the same time. With a soft voice command, I turned on the binaural beats playlist I put on every night to calm my thoughts before bed.
